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Another train derailment involving hazardous materials ... 1

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JohnRBaker

JohnRBaker

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Jun 1, 2006
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A Canadian Pacific freight train derailed in North Dakota spilling toxic material. Fortunately, this appears to have occurred a rural area far from any homes or businesses, as well as any creeks or rivers:

Train Derails In Rural North Dakota, Causes Chemical Spill

Local authorities and the railroad said there is no threat to public safety.


John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
 
And asphalt is unpleasant but isn't particularly hazardous and isn't going to go very far at those temperatures. As dik said, maybe not ignorant but another naive reporting.
 
That's an interesting train. I think it unusual to have a mix of intermodal stack cars and tank cars in one train. I've never seen anything like it.

That said, I don't see that there's anything wrong with doing that. Just unusual.


Moving on to the California crash: Jumping off a train at 80 MPH has GOT to be quite an experience. If it ever happened. On the plus side, iron ore is notoriously non-hazardous, unless you are buried under it.



spsalso
 
Thanks, IRS... didn't know they had that many derailments...

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik
 
TugboatEng said:
One could argue that it's hazardous in the same way that sugar is.
Click to expand...

I'm wondering what this argument might look like? Is the way they're similarly hazardous; to ones health if handled improperly?

- Andrew
 
It was a reference to the explosion of the chocolate factory though we don't know if sugar was a cause yet.

Cold asphalt isn't any more harmful than road. Handling of the cold asphalt would require similar PPE to a sugar spill, Tyvek suit, boots, and gloves though one may want to use wear a respirator when handling large amounts of sugar. Cleanup is going to be the same, shovels and excavators. Disposal may be the only difference. Sugar will go to landfill and the asphalt will head back to the refinery to be reprocessed.

If the weather was warmer, the asphalt clean up could be more challenging, unless, the sugar starts to attract bees which might shift the hazard back towards the sugar side.
 
River barge shipping seems like the absolute worst way to move hazardous substances. Not only are there tremendous challenges to safe navigation from tides and currents, those same tides and currents are great for spreading the hazard over long distances
 
That's why I said "seems". Their safety record isn't terrible considering how unregulated the industry is here in the USA. Subchapter M is a response to some accidents in recent history but it's still a minimal amount of oversight with vague rules.
 
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